Now
that he is free of Washington, Al Gore feels invigorated. Not that if he had
been elected, America would have acted monumentally different than George W.
Bush since 2000; but surely it is comforting for us to think so.

Nonetheless, by the time
your eyes scour this page, Gore will have endorsed Howard Dean for President
of the United States, arguing all mayhem could have been averted had a Dem
been in office.

It really is the
endorsement Dean has been looking for -- an insider, whose ties to the
Democratic elite will help boost his outsider image, and gain respect among
affluent centrist Democrats.

Within the DLC wing of the
Party, Dean has been labeled a fringe leftist, incapable of reaching out to
the Party’s conservative patrons. And Gore’s endorsement is just what the
doctor from Vermont ordered.

It is politics as usual.
Gore is backing the governor because Dean is strongly leading vital primary
states like Iowa and New Hampshire. The more conservatives that back Dean,
the less the Democratic Party looks like wild-eyed progressives. And oh,
dear no, they can’t stand the thought of that sort of label.

Why else do you think they
flew Al Gore and Bill Clinton into San Francisco to rally behind corporate
embedded Democratic mayoral candidate, Gavin Newsom? Because they fear their
party is losing vital credibility, even in liberal strongholds like the Bay
Area.

The progressive candidacy
in San Francisco of an ex-Democrat turned Green,
Matt Gonzalez; is the
second Californian testimonial after Arnold’s win, that proves the Democrats
are virtually through as an oppositional party.

And a trip to Cali from
Gore and Clinton will only inflame this breeding fervor.

Not many diehards argue the
Democrats are really progressive anyway. That’s the beauty when arguing
semantics with a bemused Dem. Even Dean, a media labeled antiwar candidate,
doesn’t pass the lefty piss test. He’s a neoliberal Zionist with a fancy for
the racist death penalty. A Gore endorsement will only solidify Dean as an
establishment candidate, who is willing to work from the inside out. No big
surprise.

And they still think this
sort of posture can win elections?

Well, it can’t for long.
Gonzalez’s bid for mayor in San Francisco is about two things; instant
run-off voting, and a populist dislike for Democratic politics as usual.
Greens may not compete on the national stage until run-off voting is in
place, but the dislike for Dem stances is thriving more and more with every
passing election cycle.

And Al Gore’s endorsement
of Howard Dean shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Dean
isn’t a liberal anyway; he’s a Wall Street Democrat who has raised over
$100,000 in the last 4 weeks from corporations like of IBM, Goldman Sachs,
Hewlett-Packard, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. And corporate sponsorships
of this sort are surely to rise in the months to come.

“Rally around the family,”
is the new Democrat motto, where prominent Dems flock to support ailing kin
like Gavin Newsom and Howard Dean. It may surely cost them their decade’s
reign in San Francisco, along with the contested White House in 2004.

If Democrats learned
anything from Gore’s loss in 2000, it should have been that playing by the
rules of electoral politics, costs them crucial elections. Whether it is
losing to Bush three years ago, or that shameful loss of the Senate in
2002—the Democrats have not provided voters with real options to counter the
Republican attack. If they had done so, they would have won.

Gore’s visits to San
Francisco, and now to New York to endorse Howard Dean—are filled with false
hopes that the old “family” can save the dieing day. But, in the long run
Gore’s endorsement will ultimately hurt Howard Dean. And if it doesn’t cost
Newsom the election this time around to Matt Gonzalez, it will cost him the
race in four years, when San Franciscans realize real progressive change
means electing real progressive candidates, not politicians as usual. Too
bad Democrats aren't realizing this already.

Because next year will be
another sad year for the lost Democrats if they don't.